GM facing 5 official probes of recalls

WASHINGTON - General Motors is facing five government investigations in connection with its recent recalls, the automaker said in a regulatory filing yesterday.

WASHINGTON — General Motors is facing five government investigations in connection with its recent recalls, the automaker said in a regulatory filing yesterday.

GM said it is being investigated by the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, an unnamed state attorney general and Congress.

GM has faced a series of investigations and lawsuits since February, when it launched a huge recall of vehicles with potentially defective ignition switches that have been linked to at least 13 deaths.

The automaker reported earlier yesterday that its first-quarter profit tumbled 88 percent because of the recall, and said expectations for the rest of the year must be trimmed.

Confidential documents released this month by a congressional committee showed that GM engineers were well aware of the serious problems with the ignition switches but rejected several opportunities to fix them sooner.

The ongoing probes by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, NHTSA and Congress were already widely known.

However, yesterday was the first time the company acknowledged that the SEC and a state attorney general also were investigating the recalls.

In its regulatory filing, GM said it was cooperating with all the investigations, and that the company could face “damages, fines, or civil and criminal penalties.”

“We are currently unable to estimate a range of reasonably possible loss for the lawsuits and investigations because these matters involve significant uncertainties at these early stages,” the company said in the filing.

“Although we cannot estimate a reasonable range of loss based on currently available information, the resolution of these matters could have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations or cash flows.”

A GM spokesman declined to comment beyond the company’s 10-Q filing.

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